part, dear, let us be wise.

61

SOUND BUTTERFLIES

(IN A FOUNTAIN)

Like interpenetrating bells of silver,
The water-drops ring and melt
Into new drops, like new notes
From an untiring lyre,
That in colored succession
Paint our heart-beats
From the gold of sunrise into sunset fire;
Yet, not like that, this brush of water-drops
Limns on the silver rim of Joy
The dark Butterflies of Desire.

62

Even in sadness thou art beside me,
In gladness, none so happy as thee;
I love thee;
May my love kiss the feet of thy love of me.

My dreams are thine, day or night,
My sleep sings in silence to the night
Of thy delight;
May thy heart's gifts like stars my heart's heaven bedight!

Though a sigh rises in my soul this hour;
Closes its petals in the west the golden day-flower;
In my bower
Let thy love pour its rainbow shower.

63

By the sea of sleep walks white-robed Night;
The breeze but the faint rustle of her drapery
That calls the mist-made bark of dream
From the cavern of the Unknown to sail to us,
Laden with endless star-like fancies.
And She! the magician, walks on and on
Over the sapphire embankment of the sky
Like a moving magnet drawing behind her a million dream-argosies.

64

FAREWELL

(AFTER A HINDUSTANI SONG)

Farewell, fairest of loves!
Life's most fanciful of gifts,
Joy and treasure, love and wonder,
Waking's elusive reality,
Dream's ever-yielding divinity.
Even thou must pass
Beyond time's starless bar:
Thy eyes, their lambent flames
Shall no more illumine my night;
Nor thy brow, home of many moods,
Tranquil yet tormented as a sea,
Shall ever wear the coronal of my kiss.
Ah, kisses! blisses of fire,
Passion's long lingering melody
Played by thy lips on mine.
Even they must die--
Intangible realities of rapture,
Ever present wonders of desire--
Now like autumn leaves
Fly with the west-wind of fear.
No, not fear that takes thee from me,
Nor love's slayer, satiety;
Yet art gone; thou art going.
Oh, not to crush thy heart on mine:
Thy breasts made but for my hands,
No more to quiver in rapture therein!
Who wills this cruel decree?
The warmth of thy body,
The staggering storm of thy yieldin